Sr citizen, social media help save trees; civic body reacts quickly, takes action

Nagpur: Lately, the words of late anthropologist Margaret Mead —“a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world”— seem to be coming true in the city. While thousands of citizens are fighting to save the mini-forest of Bharat Van, efforts taken by a senior citizen and a youth through social media helped in saving two trees.
Both the incidents took place on Monday. In the first, 63-year-old Snehal Kashikar noticed a few men cutting a rain tree near her residence in Laxmi Nagar. On enquiry, she found that the men were hired to do the job by her immediate neighbour, who were “fed up with the leaf litter”.
Though Kashikar made efforts to stop the men, they paid no heed after which she called up environment NGO Green Vigil Foundation. Acting on her complaint, the NGO members alerted the officials of Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s garden department and the two teams reached on spot. “By the time we reached, the contractor had cut few branches. They were planning to chop down the entire tree, but we managed to stop it,” said Kaustav Chatterjee, founder of the NGO.
NMC officials conducted a spot panchnama. “Our investigations revealed that over 15 branches were chopped without the mandatory permission. After taking statements, we immediately issued a show cause notice to the accused family,” officials said.
On the same day, an alert citizen who wished to remain anonymous, turned to social media for raising voice against damage done to an age-old tree. On Monday afternoon, the citizen posted pictures on Twitter, highlighting how an aluminium duct of a chimney was brutally nailed to a tree by a restaurant owner opposite the marriage hall of Scientific Society (earlier known as Rani Laxmi hall) in Laxmi Nagar. The user tagged municipal commissioner, NMC, TOI and Green Vigil in the photographs.
Soon after the post, civic officials and NGO members rushed to the spot to carry a spot inspection. “After verifying, we found the complaint to be true. Owner of a small restaurant has fixed the duct right in the middle of the tree’s trunk,” said Chatterjee.
NMC officials from Laxmi Nagar zonal office have directed him to remove the duct and nails in the next two days. “If the owner fails to do so, our team will remove it,” they said.
Few months back, the civic body had launched a drive to remove hoardings, advertisements boards and posters that were damaging the city’s green cover. Establishments putting up hoardings and posters on trees can be punished as per the Maharashtra Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1995, and Tree Preservation Act, 1975.